What else can I call it? Reflections by this INTP expat translator, researcher, cook and software developer living in Spain, mostly Madrid. This is mostly about the little things I think and do, which are quite diverse, but which otherwise nobody would know about.

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

No End in Sight for Madrid Tunnel Works Cleanup

A walk along the Manzanares river to look at what if any progress has been made in the cleanup operations following the completion of the tunnels. The area was supposed to be landscaped and handed back to the people of the city, but following the press fanfare staged as part of the election campaign. But since the elections in May 2007 the area seems to have been forgotten about. Probably not forgotten about, just put on hold until the next campaign comes around.

They've managed top plant trees along a pathway opposite the Vicente Calderón football stadium but even that is half-finished, with no proper entrance or exit: we managed to get in through a gap in the wall at one end and out again through an improvised car park on waste ground at the other.

The rest of the area has been more or less cleared of machinery and rubbish, and they've put street lamps along what looks like it will be perhaps a cycle path, but nothing more. The area is still fenced off, and pedestrians look on longingly at the Arganzuela park we used to enjoy, now reduced to a wasteland.